Georgia Executes Its Oldest Death Row Inmate

Georgia executed its oldest death row inmate Tuesday, after courts rejected a challenge to a state law that keeps secret the names of providers of lethal injection drugs.

Brandon Astor Jones, 72, was convicted in 1979 for the killing of a convenience store clerk during an armed robbery. A judge ordered a new sentencing hearing in 1989 and he was later resentenced to death in 1997.

Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan confirmed that Jones was executed at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday. His execution had been scheduled for 7 p.m. but his lawyers filed filed a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court refused to halt the execution in an order made hours after that time had passed.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 6-5 not to hear before a full court Jones' challenge of the state law that keeps secret the company that manufactures drugs used in lethal injections.

This undated photo provided by the Georgia Department of Corrections shows Brandon Astor Jones in Georgia. Jones, a 72-year-old death row inmate, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016. Georgia Department of Corrections via AP

The majority cited a decision Monday by a three-judge panel that denied a motion to stay the execution. It ruled Jones' lawyers were unable to show the challenge was likely to succeed, and noted the drugs from undisclosed sources have been used seven times "without incident."

But five judges dissented, and four of those said Georgia's law keeping secret the name of the company that compounds pentobarbital. They said the secrecy law could violate Jones' right of access to the courts.

"Today Brandon Jones will be executed, possibly in violation of the Constitution. He may also be cruelly and unusually punished in the process," the four judges said in their dissent. "But if he is, we won't know until it's too late — if ever."